machine ability of A514 steel plate

knightsteve · Nov 26, 2019

Good day. This is my first post to this forum.

I have a request for CNC milling of A514 steel plate.
The part has 5" diameter bores of .002 tolerance and 5/8" tapped holes.

I would like to hear about experiences milling this material: tool life, chip loads, etc.
I would even welcome SFM suggestions.

Thank you,
Steve

Milland · Nov 26, 2019

This thread may help: Machining "T1" steel?

doug925 · Nov 26, 2019

We do (did) a lot of A514 weldments.
Using TiAln coated, 4fl, Imco Powerfeeds, we ran around 350sfm for Dia/Depth across welded intersections, and 400sfm for profiling cuts @ 0.002" IPT, chip thinning the feed.

We got great tool life out of the mills, in less than optimal conditions, on a Cat40.
The material is tough, but not too hard.

dandrummerman21 · Nov 26, 2019

I agree with similar speeds that doug925 posted. It doesn't cut too bad. It IS tough. But just tough, not that difficult.

My question to you is, are you getting them burnt out of plate? The flame cut is the worst

Matt_Maguire · Nov 26, 2019

I agree with dandummerman, the flame cut edge is tough on tools (mill scale on the surface not so cool either). The mining truck company I worked for in the ‘70’s used to blast the roll mill scale with coal slag (black beauty), it helped a lot.

Back then, most of the docs pinned the stuff with a 40% machinability rating vs 1212. We were boring at 85% or 440SFPM with inserted carbide. For some reason or other we had to back down most of the milling work to 350SFPM-ish numbers to stay happy.

Attaching USS docs (US Steel invented it), I think A514 now has 3 types, the one with nickel in it (thick plate) was very hard to break chips at lower feedrates.

Good luck,
Matt

DethloffMfg · Nov 26, 2019

I don’t mill it but I drill and form tap a production part out of it. It drills and form taps wonderfully. It is tough and a little hard but it’s nothing wild. I believe the Condition of A514 has a somewhat important effect on its properties, I use Condition B from memory, been a while since I ordered the blanks.

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